rather than pick out individual stocks to trade, it can often be worthwhile to trade the indices themselves, especially in times of high volatility.

for those so inclined, i attach below charts for FTSE and FTSE 250, though one might equally be tempted to trade Dow or S&P, which is significantly broader in its coverage, or even NASDAQ

for ease of reading, i have attached 1 year and 3 month charts in each instance

i sure called that wrong and it just goes to show how markets can defy logic, for we have had yet more weak industrial numbers from china, imf forecasting weaker world economic growth, us employment numbers tomorrow and forthcoming earnings likely to be pretty rough

Perhaps all that is already discounted cynic? After all the Dow has given back some 1,900 points since its peak and the FTSE over 1,000 until today's rise.

dunno guv :-)
easy to rationalise after the event, but it'll be interesting to see if this rally has any real legs

in fact, i now note that the chinese numbers were still pretty pissy but above expectations

glad i didn't get panicked into closing out ...... but then sure as hell wasn't brave enough to add further either!

looks that my logic was right even if the timing proved to be rubbish

heading back to where you started .

indeed and fully expect it (ftse) to head lower still
i am also now short dow from 16,197 and have targeted 16,000 or thereabouts to close and probably reverse
at that juncture, the same is likely to apply to ftse

This could affect tomorrow....

(ShareCast News) - The US non-farm payrolls report on Friday will be under the microscope as the Federal Reserve looks for signs of improvement in the labour market before raising interest rates.
The Labor Department report is expected by analysts to show that US employers added 202,000 jobs in September, which would mark a pick-up from the previous month's 173,000. The unemployment rate is projected to remain at 5.1% in September.

meanwhile, i've been too greedy at least for now .... i should have but did not bank some of my profit

Not good shorts now ,both FTSE and DOW.

nope :-(

What's the score, do you hang in and hope for the reversal or close .I got stopped out earlier in the week on a long position only for it to bounce back the next day .

for better or worse, i don't use stops any more as they always seem to be wrongly placed :-)
as i'm "protected" by share longs, i'll stay put and clench my buttocks

Weak employment figures may save you this afternoon .

Interesting!

had a limit on 1/2 dow long which was easily hit so had a nice 57 point profit there
balance still running along very jollily

ftse is still out of the money, but not by much

Jammy or what ? did you manipulate the US figures . Could be more downhill from here for a while .

have just cashed in last part of dow for +154
50-odd points off the bottom, but as i was at the gym from 13:00, assuredly no complaints
in fact i see that dow's low was 16,011 which was very close to my original target


a dump by ftse would now finish off quite a reasonable week for me, though i've sure been pretty stupid at times

as i happily admit, i know bugger all, but certainly DOW still looks to be in a bearish pattern with lower highs and lower lows since august on almost any sensible timescale you care to look at

however, as has been abundantly shown, volatility remains exceptionally scary, so if you can get the rhythm right - or even wrong as i have shown! - there's still good money to be made in either direction